A GAMBLING addict who systematically squandered more than £15,000 stolen from his elderly mother’s bank account has been jailed for nine months.

Over a few months, 46-year-old divorcee Terry McEvoy regularly withdrew hundreds of pounds from his mother Eugenie’s account leaving only £7.95 in the bank, Bradford Crown Court heard yesterday.

Prosecutor Dave Mackay said McEvoy, who had two previous convictions for stealing from his employers, saw his mother entering her PIN when she withdrew some cash from her account last June.

The unemployed former bus driver, of New Hey Road, Oakes, later took his mother’s bank card, replacing it with his own, and made regular withdrawals from the account.

His final withdrawal was for £20 in September leaving just £7.95 in the account.

Mr Mackay said McEvoy’s mother felt disgusted by what her son had done particularly after the assistance she had given him during troubled times in his life.

Lawyer Arshad Khan, for McEvoy, said he now accepted that he was a gambling addict.

“Everybody is disgusted with what he’s done and he understands he’s got a huge task to repair that relationship,” said Mr Khan.

McEvoy pleaded guilty to stealing the cash from his mother and Recorder Taryn Turner told him that he had shown “a most breathtaking and callous disregard” for his elderly parents.

Recorder Turner said Mrs McEvoy had shown the father-of-two nothing but kindness during the difficulties in his adult life and had been prepared to give him the lion’s share of the cash she withdrew in June last year.

“You seized an opportunity that day to take your mother’s PIN number,” the judge told McEvoy.

“You were devious, swapping your own card for hers, and then you set about systematically plundering her account until there was nothing left.

“You ought to be ashamed of yourself, but I don’t know if you are.”

The judge said McEvoy had frittered away the cash and not repaid a single penny.

“This was in my view a deliberate course of conduct,” said Recorder Turner.

“You set about plundering that account all for your own gain. There is a degree of deviousness and guile in the way you went about it.”